Part two of the story of Rams rookie wide receiver Scott Pillar. Be sure to check out part one about his injury and his comeback from said injury.
Skip to the end of Pillar’s redshirt freshman season. Albright College (8-1) is set to take on Lebanon Valley (8-1) for a spot in the National Playoffs. Albright is down 23-7 in the third quarter.
“We came back to tie,” Marzka said. “Scott made a lot of big plays just to get us back to tie. He probably had 7 or 8 catches for about 200 receiving yards.”
Overtime. Lebanon Valley has already scored a touchdown after they received the ball first, and they lead by seven. Albright gets the ball at the 25 yard-line and has to score a touchdown to keep the game alive.
1st and 10: incomplete pass. 2nd and 10: quarterback sack. 3rd and 15: incomplete pass. It’s 4th and 15. Convert on 4th and 15 or score a touchdown. Otherwise, the season is over.
“There are not a lot of good calls at that point,” Marzka, the offensive play caller, said. “I look out onto the field and I look at Scott. He just points at himself, taps himself in the chest.”
Marzka called 58 Denver, a play that would call for Pillar to be an outside receiver and the number one target on the play. A corner lined up with Pillar, ready to funnel him to the next layer of coverage, where a free safety would be waiting for him.
“Before the ball is snapped, I see that I have the wrong play called for the coverage. They were going to have Scott double covered in the coverage that they were running,” Marzka said. “The ball really should have never been thrown based on the coverage, but the quarterback trusted Scott.”
Pillar went up over two defenders and came down with the ball.
“We won in double overtime. We advance to the national quarterfinals, “ Marzka said. “No doubt about it, we don’t get there without Scott.”
Pillar went on to start in the 2010 and 2011 seasons at Albright. His senior year of school was over. He had raised his degree of play to a whole other level. He now had to decide whether he wanted to graduate with his class or play a fifth year of football. Marzka was expecting the former, as no player had ever used their fifth year of eligibility at Albright.
“Scott came to me and said, ’Coach, I’m coming back for my fifth year,’” Marzka said. “Scott said, ‘Coach, I was told that I could never play again. There’s no way that I’m going to pass up an opportunity to play the game that I love.’”
Pillar’s comeback started an avalanche for fifth-year-eligible players at Albright. Prior to 2012, three others, outside of Pillar, optioned into their fifth year. Then in 2013, after Pillar graduated, seven players are coming back for their fifth year of eligibility. Prior to Pillar a total of zero had made that decision.
After the 2012 season, Pillar made another trip to Marzka’s office. He was faced with another big decision: Was he going to play at the next level?
“He came into my office and said, ‘I want to try to play professionally,’” Marzka said. “At this point, I had learned enough about kid to not even think it’s not possible. Anything is possible for him.”
But there was a problem: Pillar didn’t have the financials to train his body and prepare it for the next level. For some time, he was training at Keansburg High School, preparing for the NFL draft for free. During this time, Pillar worked at a bagel shop near his home, saving what he could for his training.
Pillar participated in the National Bowl -- a Division I-AA, II, and III All-Star game -- and won MVP of the game. At the bowl, he made his first connection with an NFL team, the St. Louis Rams. He went to other events in his area to showcase his skills, including Monmouth’s Pro Day, where he recorded a 40-yard dash time of 4.68 seconds and a broad jump of 10'1" with an overwhelming throat infection. His 40-yard dash time of 4.68 was his worst recorded time, and he later recorded a 4.54. He also met with the Chiefs, Jets and Saints during this process.
At Monmouth, Pillar met Cornell Key, the team’s personal trainer who ran a training facility called Key 2 Sports. The trainer liked what he saw from Pillar, and the two worked out a deal that could fit Pillar’s budget. He trained there through the rest of the process.
There’s a reason, beyond talent, why Scott Pillar was brought in to try out for the Rams. After all, he was a Division III player, and few players, without insane athleticism, can make noise in the league. It’s Pillar’s character and work ethic that has given him a name for himself.
“Scott practiced harder than any kid I’ve ever seen practice. The way Scott practiced in for years time, he got in the equivalent of eight years of practice. When he steps onto that field for two hours, he has only one speed, and that is 100 percent. He doesn’t know how to go half speed,” Marzka said. “He’s got a high motor and that this is always running.”
It’s the same mentality he put into his physical therapy, as he recovered from what seemed to an impossible injury to come back from. The same mentality that he put into his school work, missing a month of a semester and passing his classes, and raising his freshman GPA of 2.1 up to 3.0 by the time that he was a senior.
“He went from being an average high school student athlete to being an exceptional college student athlete,” Marzka said. “He’s just an inspiration. He’s an inspiration to me. He’s an inspiration to our team.”
At the team’s senior banquet, Pillar won the Derek Keyhoe award, an award given in remembrance of a student-athlete who lost his battle with cancer in 2006. The award symbolized his ability to overcome obstacles and adversity . He was recognized by the whole team, and the whole student body.
The next obstacle in his was the Rams rookie minicamp. The team had invited a number somewhere in the range of 25 players, all rookies. After a couple of days, only six were signed. Pillar was one of them.
“Now that he has his foot in the door, he’s going to be hard for anyone to get rid of,” Marzka said. “He’s going to outwork everybody. He’s going to give you everything that he’s got on every play. Whatever they want him to do, he’ll do it, and more.”
Pillar is still with the team in organized team activities (OTAs) and has made a bit of noise for his work after practice. In two consecutive OTAs, he was noted as the last one off of the field after practice. Instead of getting lunch or going to get right with the trainer, Pillar was working with a rookie quarterback, trying to get better.
“He convinces the rookie quarterbacks and wide receivers to stay with him,” Marzka said. “When he can’t find someone to throw to him, he asks the equipment manager to feed him balls on the JUGS machine. That’s what he always did here.”
Not only does he work to make himself better, his presence, going 100 percent on play after play, makes the players around him better.
“If you’re a coach, any coach, you can’t help but love a kid like that, who just wants to keep going. He just wants to get better,” Marzka said. “He just wants to get better, and he makes everyone else better around him.”
However, Pillar has a large transition factor as well, moving from a Division III school, which runs an unorthodox offense with no route tree to rely on, to a pro-style offense. Everything around Pillar is changing, but he’s adjusting just fine.
“I’ve had to adjust, but I feel like I am adjusting very fast,” Pillar said. “It’s all football. It’s just a matter of getting the terminology down and hearing different plays called. Learning how to run a route, the way they want you to run a route.”
Despite the many adjustments that make Pillar’s transition harder, there is one factor that is making the transition much smoother: his quarterback.
“One thing that I’ve had to adjust to was how good these quarterbacks are. They’re so precise,” Pillar said. “It makes my job easier because of how good they are. It’s fun to play with these guys.”
So what’s Pillar’s future in the NFL look like? Not many Division III guys are given their chance every year, but what will Pillar be able to do? A great work ethic and mindset can go a long way.
“If he hangs around long enough, he’s going to end up getting on the field somewhere, “ Marzka said. “I think that he can end up having a long-term career, I really do.
“People trust a guy that works. The quarterbacks are going to trust him, the other players are going to trust him, and the coaches are going to trust him because he has earned that trust.”
Pillar has continued to get noticed and gain the trust of his teammates, even in the Rams OTAs. But he isn’t worried about that. Pillar said that they’re all on an even playing field, and they’re all learning the playbook together.
As he works towards making the Rams final 53-man roster, he continues to live by the same words that has he written everywhere: “Be better than you were today than you were yesterday.”